Subject:
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 13:54:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: Glen Takahara <takahara@shannon.mast.queensu.ca>
To: dmd1@lehigh.edu

Dear Dr. Davis,

Sorry, I also meant to post a question:
If U1,...,U5 are 5 distinct elements of SO(3),
the proper symmetric group, then I am able to
prove that U1 + ... + U5 = 0 is impossible.
However, my proof is brute force and I would
like to know if anyone has some intuition or
high-level reason why they would expect this
equality to be impossible.

Sincerely,

Glen Takahara
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario
Canada, K7L 3N6
(613)533-2430
takahara@mast.queensu.ca